


Through the Looking Glass

by unwillingadventurer



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-20 07:14:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16132292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwillingadventurer/pseuds/unwillingadventurer
Summary: It's not nice being watched!





	Through the Looking Glass

Arm in arm, the Doctor and Vicki enjoyed their leisurely promenade along the lilac boulevard that ran all along the planet’s edge. Vicki had never seen such a strange and beautiful planet and her senses were captivated by the sounds of creatures she did not recognise and pleasant aromas greeting her nostrils. Around them, lining the boulevard, there were glass tanks, floor to ceiling, stacked up on top of one another. Everything seemed to be on display and Vicki grabbed the Doctor’s hand excitedly as she led him to one of the tanks. 

“Oh, look at that!” she exclaimed as her fingers pressed against the glass, leaving smudges as she removed them moments later. “I wish Ian and Barbara were here to see this. Where do you think they got to? It was strange them being separated from us on arrival.”

“Escorted to some spa, no doubt,” the Doctor said dismissively as though it were of no importance. He peered at the glass of one of the tanks in the middle and glanced at the tiny creatures inside. “Extraordinary. These specimens look humanoid.”

“Bit small to be like us.”

The Doctor examined the tank and peered around the edges at the small buttons and mass of circuitry that surrounded it. “Hmm, most intriguing. I do believe these humanoid creatures are in fact our size.”

Vicki placed her hand over her mouth to suppress laughter. “How can that be?”

“Some sort of illusion, my dear. Inside must be bigger, but we’re deceived into seeing this condensed reality like a dollhouse view.”

“Sort of like the TARDIS. Perhaps your people created this world.”

“Nonsense, child. It’s far too rudimentary for that.”

“You were impressed a minute ago!”

“Yes, well, now I’m not, now come along, come along. I’m certain something is amiss here and I’d like to inspect further.”

Vicki linked her arm through his and cuddled up next to him. “Doctor if they are humans like me, do they know they’re being watched because this all sounds a serious human rights violation to me?”

The Doctor placed his index finger to his lips and hushed her.

Vicki, annoyed at being silenced, trotted over to another tank and peered inside. “Of course, I suppose we gawp at animals all the time but in my day if they weren’t being looked after in cages and things then the poachers would kill them all, either that or they’d have died from the radiation storms.” She peered around the tank at the ordinary little room inside that looked like an Earth living room. “I love zoos though. I love examining all the little rituals and behaviours.” She gasped. “Hang on, those two look like Ian and Barbara!”

“Nonsense, child.” He peered inside and then did a double-take. “Goodness gracious!”

…

From inside, Barbara screamed. “Ian!”

Within a moment of hearing Barbara cry, he was at her side. “What is it?”

“That!” Barbara pointed to the glass. 

Ian looked up and saw the ginormous eye of the Doctor peering in at them from the window to their accommodation. He screamed. “Jesus Christ!”

“It’s the Doctor and Vicki. They’re giants!”

“What on earth is happening?” Ian grabbed Barbara’s hand and they dived from view behind the sofa. “I thought that window was a sort of hologram. I thought all those people walking by were projections on the tele. It seems we’re…”

“…being watched!” Barbara gulped.

“What is this, some kind of television programme showing normal people sitting around in a house doing nothing?”

“I can’t see anyone watching anything like that, Ian.”

“But what else? We’ve been shrunk and we’re some kind of specimens?”

“Oh, I don’t like the sound of that.”

The teachers placed their hands on-top of the sofa and together, slowly peered over the top. Sure enough, it was the Doctor’s white hair they could see as well as the lines on his face in perfect detail. Beside him there was another face, almost as big as the length of glass. Her eyes were gazing at them in fascination. Her hair brushed the side of the tank. 

“Vicki’s getting a good peek,” Ian said.

Barbara stood up and waved her hands in the air. “Doctor, Vicki, help us! Can you hear us?”

Ian joined in, waving his arms around but figured at their small size, their voices would be unclear. Vicki’s giant face produced a rather splendid grin and where she laughed, they could see her teeth and nearly down her throat. 

“She finds this hilarious,” Ian said.

Grabbing a piece of paper from the table, Barbara found a pen from a drawer in the bureau and began writing. She held up the note which read. ‘Get us out of here.’

The eyes of both the Doctor and Vicki narrowed as they tried to read- from their point of view- miniscule writing. The Doctor proceeded in reaching for his monocle and with this he looked at the writing more easily.

Moments later, a piece of paper covering the entire glass window was held up. It read: ‘looking into your captivity. Don’t do anything you wouldn’t wish people to see.’

“What exactly is he implying?” Ian said, falling in defeat upon the sofa.

Barbara fell beside him. “And why us? I see the Doctor and Vicki haven’t been held here to be gawped at. What makes us so special?”

Aware they were now being watched and not as their hosts had told them- relaxing in top-class accommodation- Ian and Barbara sat still, not daring to move and make a spectacle of themselves. Ian smiled as he saw Barbara flatten her unruly hair. He could hardly judge as he did his best to tuck in his stomach. 

“This is ridiculous,” he said. “We can’t sit here like robots all day waiting for the Doctor and Vicki to save us. I don’t want to be watched going to the toilet.”

“Well I agree but what do you propose, we form an escape committee and escape in full view of our spectators? Better yet, why don’t we find a motorcycle and cruise out of here like Steve McQueen?”

“Alright, alright, so I don’t have a plan but we can’t let them keep us here. Perhaps one of us could look for an exit whilst one creates a diversion?”

“Oh?”

“Well, I’m the science man so I’ll use my skills to try and break out somehow. You could distract everyone.”

“And how do you suppose I do that?” 

There was a long pause from Ian. 

Barbara’s eyebrow rose. “Any suggestions involving a striptease will result in you dead on the floor.”

“Hey that’s not a bad idea, Barbara!”

“You do a striptease if you think its such a good idea!”

“No, no, not stripping, what you just said about being dead. Perhaps one of us should play dead and then someone will notify whoever’s in charge. After all, no one wants a dead specimen, do they?”

“Alright, who should do it?”

“I should. I have a feeling you’d illicit more sympathy if you shed a few tears over my dead body.”

Barbara folded her arms. “Is that so?”

“It can’t be hard. There’s already a crowd watching us in fascination. They must be flocking to see us for some reason. A death will really liven things up. So, act like you’re distraught.”

“I’ll act shocked.”

Suddenly, Ian clutched at his chest and in over the top pantomime fashion he opened his eyes widely, moving his arms up and down before flailing and falling onto the sofa. His body splayed out. 

“Ian!” Barbara over-gestured.

…

“Doctor, Ian’s dead!” Vicki exclaimed, watching the scene in horror. “They must have killed him somehow. We have to do something for Barbara.”

“I’m working on it, child, and we don’t know if Chesterton’s dead, injured or play acting.”

Vicki wiped away her tears with her sleeve. “Oh Doctor, what if he really is hurt?”

“We must think positive, my dear. Barbara is not affected, is she?”

“No, she appears to be weeping.”

“She must be play-acting too. I might have known those two would think of something ingenious.”

Vicki sighed with relief. “Oh, thank goodness, for a minute there I thought it was real. And to think I always made fun of Ian’s acting.”

“Now, you wait here and keep an eye on them. I’m off to the people in charge in hopes to be there when Ian and Barbara attempt their escape.”

…

“Do you think they’re buying it?” Ian whispered discreetly from the side of his mouth.

Barbara placed her hand over her face as though in distress as she looked at the glass. “They’re all watching. There’s a crowd gathering. Vicki’s eyes are red!”

“I must have convinced her I was dying!”

“Can you hear that?” Barbara listened carefully. “Someone’s outside. Quick Ian, act more dead.”

Suddenly the door opened and a long arm reached into the tank at the back side of the room. Barbara jumped next to Ian on the sofa and buried her head on his shoulder. They were both terrified as they clung to one another for support.

“It’s a giant arm!” Ian said through gritted teeth, looking through one narrow eye as he saw a giant set of rather frail and wrinkly fingers descending upon them. 

Barbara felt something brush harshly over her side and realised it was some kind of jewellery on one of the fingers. She then felt warm flesh wrapping around her. She and Ian were scooped into the giant palm, enclosed gently within and then pulled toward the door and into daylight. As they were moved, a panel opened and it appeared to look smaller and smaller as they travelled through it. Where the hand had fully covered them, it now loosened its grip and the hand got smaller and smaller until they were no longer being held at all. 

The next minute they were falling onto the floor with a thud and when Barbara adjusted her eyes she could see that she and Ian were full-sized and that the Doctor was standing beside them.

“Well done, my friends,” he said, clapping with glee, “it worked, it worked.”

Ian rubbed his head. “Would you mind explaining it to us?”

“The authorities here were convinced by your performance, Chesterton. I persuaded them that I could be the one to remove you and help you recover. But we must hurry. We don’t have much time and need to get out of here.”

“But we were small and you were massive,” Barbara said.

“My dear we can’t stand here discussing dimensions, besides, it’s not the first time you’ve felt small.”

Ian sighed. “It’s a daily occurrence with you, Doctor.”

By the time they reached Vicki on the boulevard, an alarm was blaring, indicating that the ‘specimens’ had escaped. 

“I don’t like this planet very much,” Vicki said as she began to follow her friends along the pathway back to the TARDIS.

They threw themselves inside and sighed with relief when the Doctor put the ship into flight. Barbara was thankful to be away from the awful place and hear the familiar hum of the TARDIS and then see the rise and fall of the central column. 

“But Doctor,” Barbara said. “What about the poor other prisoners there? Ought we to do something about it?”

“Don’t worry, my dear, I have sent a distress signal to the authorities in this region. With any luck this ‘perfect’ planet shall be investigated presently.”

“One thing I don’t understand,” Ian said, approaching the Doctor at the console, “why was it me and Barbara and not you and Vicki? Surely you, Doctor, are a more interesting individual?”

“Thank you, Chesterfield. It is indeed most perplexing.”

Vicki puffed her chest out and smirked. “I know why.”

“How could you possibly know, child?” the Doctor said.

“I saw it on Ian and Barbara’s exhibit. Their tank was called ‘They’re in love’.” Vicki turned to look at the school-teachers. “The planet’s people obviously thought you two were a potential mating couple.” She laughed and revelled in the sudden red faces of Ian and Barbara.

“Don’t be silly, Vicki!” Barbara said. 

The Doctor clutched his lapels. “Now, now, Barbara, it’s not so far-fetched hmm? After all, animals are observed for such practices, are they not?”

“So, we’re just animals now without reasoning or intelligence?” Barbara moaned.

“To those aliens perhaps you are primitive.”

Ian smirked. “Not the first time an alien has assumed that about us.” He gave a wry glance to the Doctor who immediately turned his head. 

“But to be ogled and experimented with,” Barbara said. “It’s quite horrible. And simply because I am a woman and Ian is a man. They had nothing else to go on.”

“You were the OTP.” Vicki delighted in chipping in. 

“I have no idea what an OTP is and I’m not sure I ever want to know so don’t bother telling me. Can Barbara and I get back to being unnoticed friends and colleagues?” Ian said.

“It’s not everyone else’s fault you have romantic chemistry,” Vicki said. 

Ian and Barbara glanced shyly at one another as the Doctor and Vicki chuckled behind them.

“And as for the sexual chemistry…”

Barbara placed her hand over Vicki’s mouth. “That’s quite enough out of you, young lady.”

Ian yanked one of her hair bunches. “Pretty strong talk for you, Vicki, after all that crying over me earlier eh?”

Vicki tried to protest but Barbara’s hand was still over her mouth.

“You were sure I was dead. You sobbed over me,” Ian said with a chuckle. 

Vicki escaped Barbara’s clutches. “Alright, alright, I’m sorry. I was just saying that wherever we go, people think you’re in love and maybe if so many people see it then perhaps just maybe it’s…true?”

Ian and Barbara glanced shyly at each other for a second time.

“I really must change out of these clothes,” Barbara said before rushing off from the room.

“And I’ve got to head…in the other direction…” Ian said, darting to the other side of the ship.

“Do you think they’ll ever admit it, Doctor?”

The Doctor put his arm around her. “We shall see, my child, we shall see, hmm?”


End file.
